Beginning volleyball players are able to gain strength by working out with the body weight, but in order to get to the next level athletes need to start weight training.

One of the best methods to get strength is the basic weight training in the gym. Traditional weight lifting exercises like squats, deadlifts, clean and jerk, snatches, bench press and all the variations of them are great exercises for volleyball players.

Weight training doesn’t necessary mean traditional weight lifting. It could include training with medicine balls, kettle bells or any extra weight you can imagine.

Pure Power Alone Is Not Enough
Pure power and strength alone doesn’t carry very far on the volleyball court – volleyball players also need endurance, agility and quickness on the court.

Being Explosive and Quick Is Important
When working out it is extremely important to keep in mind what qualities is needed in volleyball.

For example being explosive and quick is important for volleyball players, therefore an athete should always have explosive power training or quickness training in the training schedule.

Volleyball Conditioning Drills – Endurance Training

What kind of conditioning is needed in volleyball?
Let’s think about the volleyball match – each rally is about 5-15 seconds long, following with 5-10 second break between the rallies. Wouldn’t it make sense to practice endurance in that context?

Therefore traditional cardio, like long distance running is probably not the best training for volleyball endurance. It will surely increase athletes’ VO2 max, but still there is a better way..

Engage athletes for example in plyometrics training (low impact jumps, footwork drills, ladder drills, dot drills, etc.), in which athlete works that 5-15 seconds intensively, then having a little 5-10 break between each rep. That kind of training makes athlete work out with the same energy levels than needed in volleyball.

Surely you could add also higher intensity interval training into the mix – making athletes taking for example 15 second sprints following by jogging/walking before doing another sprint. You could make that happen on the volleyball court by running volleyball suicides – making sure athletes have to change direction often, just like in the volleyball match.

Volleyball Conditioning Drills – Agility Training

How to get quick feet and become fast on the court?
Plyometric exercises involve usually to short and quick movements, which athlete performs often with own body weight in a circuit type of training.

Plyometric exercises are great way to improve agility and help athletes to change direction quickly.

Ballistic training is very close to plyometrics training and often referred as plyometrics. Explosive push ups, squat jumps, frog jumps, medicine ball throws are ballistic or plyometric exercises which are excellent for volleyball players.

Next week we will cover Spiking Fundamentals : by Hugh McCutcheon, head coach USA Volleyball

Middle blockers rule the net. They need to be warriors, constantly in motion, relentlessly aggressive on offense and defense. To be an effective CF (Center Front), you must love to work hard and be involved in every play. You’re like the shot blocker in basketball. You have to dominate the net, and make it your own, make opposing hitters think about what they’re doing, change their shots, throw off their game.

Here’s some tips for playing tough CF:

1) Block head-to-head, but remember, the angle shot is essential to hit, you’ll see 80% or better of these in some games. Shut down the angle, and then see what else your opponent can do. Many times, there’s nothing they can do, and will stop hitting. Then you own them, they are no longer a factor.

2) When blocking the quick set, look where the setter is. Is your opponent too far back to block it effectively? If so, wait, and expect a regular set, or something outside.

3) Try to smother the ball. Get your hands completely around the ball, and push it down. Make it impossible for the ball to go anywhere but straight back down.

4) Unless your opponent runs a 5-1, it’s rarely worthwhile to go up to block when they’re setting. By going up with the setter, you’ve lost valuable time in getting to where their set is going to go.

5) Wait an extra 1/2 second when blocking a back row attack. Also be certain you have a good chance to get it, because your block may obscure the vision of your teammates, getting ready to dig in the back row.

6) Play one-on-one with the opposing CF. It’s like man-to-man in basketball. If your opponent goes up, you must go up. If the opponent moves to hit a slide, you have to go with them. Unless you know for certain they’ll be out of play, you have to “mirror” the opposing CF.

7) Wear Springbak Springsoles in your volleyball shoes. This will give you a few more inches on your vertical jump and increase your spiking and serving speeds as well. Also, you will have quicker reaction times to the ball and have much more balance and stability on the court.

Want a great hitting strategy?

Here’s a way for you to up your outside hitting percentage by simply making your opposing blocker “play you honestly”. The strategy is simple, but not used nearly enough.

All you have to do is to always, without exception, hit your first ball down the line. Sounds simple right? But what it does is this: blockers are taught to block angle until the opponent hits the line, since 90% of hits are blasted angle. So, if you hit your very first hit down the line, it instantly tells your opponent you can do it, and that you WILL do it. They must now play you straight on, to guard the line, which will open up your angle again.

Also, if your first line shot goes down, hit your second one down the line too. The reason? Many coaches assume that a line shot was actually an accident, a ball that wasn’t hit right in effect. They’ll tell their blockers to keep blocking angle until their opponent hits two down the line. So, you’ll get away with a second shot down the line as well.

Springbak Inc. has just sponsored Costa Rica National Volleyball team for the 2009-2010 seasons with their performance volleyball insoles.

Costa Rica opened the recent FIVB World Championship qualifier in Florida with 3-0 victories over Barbados and the Netherlands Antilles National Teams and took 2nd place in the qualifier. This qualifies Costa Rica for the FIVB women’s World Championships in 2010 in Japan. USA national team took the 1st place spot.

“We are proud to sponsor the Costa Rica National Team for the next 2 years and working closely with their coaches and trainers to do our part in performance athletic footwear for their athletes”. Mark Vona – GM Springbak Inc.

We hear these techniques from world class athletes and trainers all the time, there must be something here. The most important part of volleyball training is proper training. If an athlete jumps repeatedly with poor technique, they can seriously injure themselves. A good volleyball coach or trainer seems to always emphasize the importance of maintaining proper technique at all times.

When volleyball jump training, athletes should keep their knees directly in line with their ankles and not allow the knees to bend over further, reaching to where they are in line with their toes. This position puts stress on the knee, an already fragile part of the body. If athletes feel that they cannot get low enough in the sit before the jump, they should either widen their feet or lean further forward, allowing their rear to extend further back, while keeping a straight back.

Besides keeping the knees in line with the ankles, athletes should ensure that they are pushing off from the whole foot. Doing so ensures that athletes get full power in their jump and are not killing the height of the jump. When jumping, athletes should strive to leave the floor from the middle of the foot or the ball of the foot for maximum vertical.

Finally, athletes should land by rolling through the foot. This protects the knees and ensures stability as athletes move from jumping into another activity. The best way to land a jump properly is to allow the foot to land naturally in the air, with the toes down. This puts the athlete in the proper position to land the jump.

We want you, the athletes, to give us comments here about your successful routine of volleyball training for proper technique and maximum vertical jumping ability.

In conjunction with the 2009 NCAA Men’s Volleyball National Championship, BYU will host a volleyball clinic on Saturday, May 9th 2009 at noon(MT). The free clinic will be held on the main court in the BYU Smith Fieldhouse and will feature Bejing Olympic Gold Metalists Ryan Millar and Rich Lambourne.

In addition to basic volleyball instruction, Millar and Lambourne will share experiences from their time at BYU and with Team USA.

The National Volleyball Championship match in which many athletes wear our Springbak Springsoles will begin at 5 p.m. MT and will be broadcast live on ESPN2 and simulcast on ESPN360.com.